It was a little messy. The recipe call for you to make your own dumpling casings instead of buying Won Ton pastry. But the final result was great. Half the dumpling fried (and slightly stuck to the frying pan, hence the name) and the other half steamed.

[EDITED TO ADD - BRITTNEY, DO YOU STILL HAVE STRAWB'S LEFT? THIS IS A GREAT WAY TO USE THEM]

Homemade Strawberry/Raspberry Tea bread has been a winner in my household recently.

Basic recipe is:

Cream butter/sugar in a bowl, add a splash of milk and two eggs (quickly to avoid curdling). Fold in self-raising flour to create stiff mixture . Fold in some fruit & chopped/ground almonds or hazlenuts for texture.

Bake in medium oven, until risen/brown.

For amounts & time in oven either go with your gut instinct, or google will find you a recipe, this is the basic recipe we use.

I've discovered the pleasure and convenience of tabbouleh and hummus mixes.

The former is "American" tabouli. Basically just bulgar wheat with seasonings. I add to that a slug of olive oil, a slug of lemon juice, and most of a head of parsley, very finely chopped. And sliced black olives. It's really zesty and palette-clearing.

I've made the real thing a few times, but hummus from a mix is surprisingly decent. Adding extra oil and garlic and paprika helps.

Man, reading this thread over lunch was a bad idea - my canteen salad just don't taste as good, now.

On the plus side - I just moved into a new flat, which has enough outdoor space for a barbeque! This makes me very happy indeed, and the stuff I've cooked so far has been good, but I still haven't come close to making a really excellent rub or marinade. I've been watching lots of those TV shows where a big fat man eats lots of deliciously seasoned meats, but all of the recipes on there are either top secret, or contain about fifty ingredients. Can anyone recommend me some good, punchy, barbeque mixes to mess around with?

WORSETHANDETROIT: I made that tea bread last night, only with blackberries instead of strawbs. It was quite good! A little dry, but I think adding just half a tbsp of cooking oil to the mix might negate that, in the future. I also added just a shot of dark rum, and got some really nice, subtle spice notes out of it!

I believe I have to top your ramen experiments w/ something the fella used to eat as "I'm single food".

-cook up a package of ramen, drain, mix w/ flavor packet-microwave a Totino's Party Pizza (which I have never seen more than 2 people eat one pizza; at what kind of parties are they expecting these things to show up?), even though it's not the recommended cooking method.-dump ramen into middle of pizza, roll sort-of like a burrito, eat, feel ashamed.

I did try it once. I did feel sufficiently bad about it. It didn't taste too bad, though...

I saw a picture on tumblr of strawberries w/ cheesecake filling, so now I have to get some more strawberries and try this. I will report back!

(ETA: Something else from tumblr, but I actually made it. Pizza cupcakes! Canned biscuit dough in a muffin tin, w/ sauce and cheese in the middle.)

1. I had the chance to visit the Helmand Restaurant, serving Afhgan cuisine in Cambridge, MA, where amongst other things I had the appetizer pictured here. Kaddo is a gel like bed of baby pumpkin that had been twice cooked and processed into this amazing jelly, over a garlic yogurt sauce and topped with a tomato meat sauce.

I haven't been so happily confused by a dish in ages. It is just one of those moments where I was like....what, I can't even imagine how this must taste. Fantastic. The rest of the menu, an assortment of kebabs and lamb dishes and other meaty and veg goodness, was just great. If you get the chance to try Afghan, do not pass it up. Dessert was a variation on baklava and a cognac. I could only have been happier if it finished with a hookah taken reclining on pillows afterwards.

2. I had some beets I needed to cook immediately and quickly. I love roasting them, but I microwaved them instead in a silicone tagine in a bit of water for 12 minutes, in bite size chunks, and they came out well enough. Not the depth of flavor of roasting though, so they needed a sauce.

I had no yogurt, so I mixed up a vinaigrette consisting of white vinegar, evoo, Siracha, fish sauce, sugar, salt, orange zest and juice, and some cherry juice. I mixed this into the beet water from the micro steaming, and while it wasn't fantastic, it made a nice match. It still needed yogurt and something crunchy like walnuts or caramelized onions to really make it a satisfying beet salad.

I am chilling the leftovers in the marinade though, and I think they will make a decent quick pickle.

REQUEST:

I have a cheap little Japanese pickle press (with a spring, not a screw top). What should I try making for tsukemono?

No picture, because it was eaten very quickly, but for dinner I had a breaded chicken breast with grated old white cheddar melted on top of it, all topped with a pinch of smoked paprika (LOVELY stuff) and jalapeno ssauce all put on a bun. Oh god, it was delicious.

David, learning to make good kale chips allowed me to DECIMATE a 2 lb. bag of kale in a little under a week. I add black pepper, Chicago pizza spice mix, and parmesean cheese on mine, and bake it for about seven minutes in a 350 F oven.

The crazy thing about kale is that boiled or raw or whatever it's not un-tasty, but it's heavy and chewy as fuck, but kale chips are super light and crispy! It's like baking is some alchemical process that turns it into a completely different vegetable.